The invention relates to a storage device for a spare length of at least one optical fibre which emerges from a cable end, which storage device can be arranged in the vicinity of the cable end and comprises a flat storage space in which the spare length is arranged in the form of a coil, an end of the optical fibre which leads to a joint being extractable, during which operation the diameter of the coil is reduced, the storage space comprising guide walls which determine the minimum inner coil diameter, the maximum outer coil diameter and also the axial height.
A device of this kind is known from DE-OS 32 48 003. Therein, ends of two optical cables are fed into a sleeve housing. The exposed ends of the optical fibres of the optical cable are arranged in the form of turns in storage containers.
The excess lengths required for the formation of a splice of for repairs at a later stage can be extracted from and re-introduced into the storage containers. The splice is subsequently secured in the sleeve housing.
In order to splicing or repair also at a later instant, notably in the case of a plurality of stacked storage containers, good results have been obtained with embodiments where the individual storage containers can be removed from a sleeve housing or a distribution box, thus enabling free access to the splices at any time (see Int. Wire and Cable Symposium, Proceedings 1983, page 47).